Commuters travel on the westbound 91 Freeway near Ivy Street in Riverside on Wednesday, Jan. 9. Caltrans recently repainted lines separating carpool lanes from the main lanes on the 91 Freeway to let carpoolers get in and out of the lanes at any point. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Ride sharers soon will be able to jump in and out of the carpool lanes at any point on the 91 Freeway from downtown Riverside to east Corona.

Before too long, even those who travel alone may get the green light to drive in carpool lanes on Riverside County freeways — in between rush-hours. But not so fast.

First, Caltrans has to do a study to see if it would make sense to open the special lanes to all traffic at less-busy hours, as is done on the 60 Freeway in Moreno Valley and widely across Northern California.

Caltrans spokeswoman Jocelyn Whitfield said that study should be finished in January 2020.

“We’ll take a look at this and, if we can open it up, we will,” Whitfield said.

Commuters travel on the westbound 91 Freeway near Ivy Street in Riverside on Wednesday, Jan. 9. Caltrans recently replaced solid white lines separating carpool lanes from the main lanes of the 91 with dash lines, which allow ride sharers to enter and exit the carpool lanes at any point. This summer, white dash lines will be painted on the carpool lanes from near Madison Street to the 15 Freeway in Corona. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

As for where 91 Freeway ride sharers enter and exit carpool lanes, until recently they had to patiently wait until long, solid white lines gave way to short stretches of broken lines near interchanges. That began to change in December 2016, when Caltrans repainted the carpool lanes with continuous white dash lines between the 91-60-215 interchange and Madison Street in Riverside, Whitfield said.

Under California law, motorists may not cross solid lines but they may cross broken or dash lines.

Later this year, the option of entering and exiting at any point will spread west along the 91 to Corona. Whitfield said that this summer Caltrans crews will paint white dash lines from just east of Madison to the 15 Freeway.

Cervantes, in an email, said she was seeking “commonsense traffic solutions” for western Riverside County drivers.

There are plenty of supporters for her proposal to open lanes when rush-hour ends.

Judy Tanner, an insurance adjuster who lives in Riverside and drives throughout the Inland Empire at all hours of the day, is one of them.

“I think it is a huge waste of freeway lanes to keep it restricted like they do,” Tanner said this week. “And I think it is unfair. It makes sense just to open it all up.”

Longtime Riverside County transportation commissioner Bob Magee, a Lake Elsinore City Council member, said that would lead to more efficient use of carpool lanes.

“We have an existing infrastructure that is being underutilized,” Magee said.

Advocates of midday and nighttime carpool-lane use by everyone often point to the San Francisco Bay area practice of letting solo drivers in the lanes after rush-hour ends.

“It’s working in Northern California, why wouldn’t it work here?” Tanner asked.

Kome Ajise, director of planning for the Southern California Association of Governments, the nation’s largest regional planning agency, said it might not work because of traffic patterns.

“In Northern California, the peak period is very distinct and short,” he said, saying carpool-lane traffic drops off sharply after rush-hour.

In contrast, Southern California rush-hours are long and traffic volume remains heavy in between, Ajise said.

“It’s almost impossible to operate a partial HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane like they do in Northern California, in Southern California, as a result,” he said.

Ajise said the study likely will examine whether traffic on Riverside County carpool lanes drops off enough in non-peak hours to justify letting others use them. And even if it does, he said, Caltrans must examine whether making an exception for Riverside County freeways would confuse commuters who travel through multiple counties.

“The freeways are busy all the time,” Whitfield said. “That’s the challenge.”

On the other hand, on the 60 in Moreno Valley solo drivers can use carpool lanes in between rush-hours. The ride-share requirement is in effect from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. That exception was made in 2011. And, so far, Whitfield said, the freeway is operating well under those rules.

Whatever Caltrans concludes through its study, don’t look for carpool lanes in the heavily populated coastal counties to open to everyone, said Juan Matute, deputy director of UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies.

Matute said that’s because speeds on carpool lanes in Los Angeles and Orange counties are already slow as a result of heavy traffic throughout the day.

Dave is a general assignment reporter based in Riverside, writing about a wide variety of topics ranging from drones and El Nino to trains and wildfires. He has worked for five newspapers in four states: Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and California. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Colorado State University in 1981. Loves hiking, tennis, baseball, the beach, the Lakers and golden retrievers. He is from the Denver area.